Cyber attack draws yawns

Groups opposing the government's internet censorship plans have condemned today's attacks on government websites, saying it will do little to help their cause, while Communications Minister Stephen Conroy called them "totally irresponsible".

Hackers connected with the group Anonymous, known for its war against Scientology, this morning launched a broad attack on government websites.

They are protesting against forthcoming internet filtering legislation and the perceived censorship in pornography of small-breasted women (who are thought to be under age) and female ejaculation.

A flyer Anonymous used to recruit people for the hack attack.

Several government sites were down this morning and the hackers have promised to follow up by spamming government offices with pornographic emails, faxes and prank phone calls.

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The Attorney-General's department this morning confirmed the attacks and said the Department of Defence Cyber Security Operations Centre was monitoring the situation.

A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the attacks were not a legitimate form of political statement. They were "totally irresponsible and potentially deny services to the Australian public".

The attacks, organised under the banner "Operation: Titstorm", come five months after hackers connected with the same group briefly brought down the Prime Minister's website. At the time the hackers said they would regroup and launch new attacks.

Flyers distributed to recruit participants for the operation said the denial of service attacks on government servers would begin at 8am today.

The Parliament of Australia website, aph.gov.au, was down for a period this morning, while access to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy's website was patchy.

A spokesman for the Department of Parliamentary Services, which runs the Parliament House website, said at the peak of the attack the site was receiving 7.5 million hits a second, up from the few hundred per second it normally receives.

He said the website was inaccessible for about an hour from 8am, and was offline intermittently due to the four attacks that had been detected by lunchtime.

It is not clear how many other sites were targeted but it appears a wide range of government servers were flooded with traffic.

Anonymous is a loosely connected group of anonymous online pranksters who come together to work towards certain goals, such as the eradication of the Church of Scientology or blocking perceived threats to internet freedom. It is not clear if the same members of the group involved in attacks on Scientology participated in the attacks on government websites.

The attacks come as the government prepares to introduce its controversial mandatory internet filtering legislation and just after the Australian sex industry claimed porn films were being banned from sale in Australia because they featured small-breasted women and female ejaculation.

The Classification Board confirmed that pornography could be banned if participants simply "appeared" to be under age, while female ejaculation was considered a form of urination, which is banned under content classification guidelines.

In an email sent to media yesterday afternoon foreshadowing the attacks, Anonymous referred to the internet filtering legislation and the perceived pornography censorship.

"No government should have the right to refuse its citizens access to information solely because they perceive it to be 'unwanted'," the email read.

"The Australian government will learn that one does not mess with our porn. No one messes with our access to perfectly legal (or illegal) content for any reason."

In the flyer recruiting people for the attacks, Anonymous said the attacks on the websites would be followed by "a shitstorm of porn email, fax spam, black faxes and prank phone calls to government offices (emails/faxes should focus on small-breasted porn, cartoon porn and female ejaculation, the 3 types banned so far)".

Despite anticipating the attacks because of flyers that had previously been circulated, the Department of Parliamentary Services spokesman said there was little that could be done to shield the site from attack.

‘‘We were never going to be able to protect against that,'’ he said. ''Our objective has simply been to bring the site back into operation after the attack. They can’t last forever.''

The attack also extended to spam, with various email accounts within the department receiving bulk emails from an anonymous sender that featured pornographic images and text. The email addresses targeted appear to be those listed on the website.

The Department of Defence has been informed of the attack, which the parliamentary services spokesman said appeared to be based on the false idea that the bureaucracy was partisan.

‘‘We assume that they think we’re a part of executive government,’’ he said.

Speaking to the ABC's Hungry Beast this week for a segment on the government's internet filtering policy, which airs tonight, Senator Conroy laughed off the Anonymous threats. He said the hackers themselves described last year's attack on government websites as "shockingly disappointing".

"It would be much more helpful for these people to put their efforts behind legitimate action to stop this ineffective and inefficient attempt at censorship by the Australian government," Stop Internet Censorship co-founder Nicholas Perkins said.

- with Ari Sharp

67 comments so far

I am very anti censorship and very anti filter. But these attacks and proposed "prank calls" are childish in th extreme and don't help the cause at all.

Commenter

James

Location

Sydney

Date and time

February 10, 2010, 9:33AM

good on them quite honestly. i wouldn't normally the condone hacking of government websites, but quite honestly, the government has no right with this filter. its ridiculous how they just don't listen to what people say.

Commenter

johnjameson

Date and time

February 10, 2010, 9:43AM

Little boys in mens bodies. Doing something worthwhile for the World? I think not. The Government is not going to stop anybody from their own lower self, so don't worry so. You can have a tug in your own time without pulling down others in the meantime. The government is not full of Scientologists yet. What about looking at the exclusive Brethren? You don't have time. Too busy with looking after your own 'needs'.

Commenter

enriching

Location

melb

Date and time

February 10, 2010, 9:43AM

This is bizarre.

I must say that it is good to see more negative publicity on conroys fascist internet filter, I wonder how long it will take the govt to block the age if it dares to print anti government sentiment. Seriously, we need to remove the union jack from our flag and put a hammer and sickle there instead.

OOOPS! shouldnt say that - might get banned.

Commenter

bizarre.

Location

melb

Date and time

February 10, 2010, 9:43AM

Woah, these guys are amazing!! They bought down government web sites. Web sites that are probably run by a minister's good mate who has virtually no IT experience what so ever.

This is lamer than lame.

Commenter

script kiddies

Date and time

February 10, 2010, 9:43AM

And all as part of the invalid mind that must scrape the barrel and look at images of the underage. Great protest and thanks for your contribution to the betterment of the World.

Commenter

for the sad little boys

Location

melb

Date and time

February 10, 2010, 9:44AM

Censorship is not called for in a Western Democracy. We cannot lecture China on the freedom of Internet and at the exact same time, implement a national web filtering here in Australia.
The guise Conroy gives for censorship is inappropriate content. I personally err on the side of freedom and not repression.

Parents: monitor your kids internet use and implement tools freely available
Government: keep out of our homes and internet use
Citizens: do not be fooled thinking the Governmnet is trying to protect you.

Governments always use censorship to repress and if the censorship begins with disagreeable content, it will balloon into other content. The current blacklist proves that Government cannot, must not be allowed to censor the internet.

The solution CANNOT work based on the content that is currently being targeted. If the solution CANNOT work for the intended purpose, one must question then: What is the real intent of the Goverment blocking information to its people?

Look no futher than China to find your answer.

Commenter

Tempest

Location

Sydney

Date and time

February 10, 2010, 9:46AM

"No government should have the right to refuse its citizens access to information solely because they perceive it to be 'unwanted',"

EXACTLY. WE ARE NOT CHINA.

Commenter

Dave

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

February 10, 2010, 9:46AM

Stupid twits - really, the government already knows the identity of most of this group through back tracing blog posts and replies by registered users, combine that with root tranceable network activity, means that they will be caught. Worse still for them, this attack could fall into the grey area under our terrorism act - thus these young people will never know what hit them when the AFP start knocking on their doors in a few days time.

Commenter

Kevin

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

February 10, 2010, 9:47AM

While I would not support this hacking compain, the internet filter is an abomination that needs to be stopped. It is certainly not about "small breasted women and female urination" as the article suggests. It is about freedom of expression on what has become the dominant medium. "Unwanted" discussions of euthenasia, abortion, criticisms of the security foruces etc. can be silently banned, now or by a future government. There is absolutely no evidence that this is needed, nor that Australians want it except for the religious right.